Personal Best

"Eighty percent of life is showing up!"

-Woody Allen
American humorist, director

Roger Bannister - First person to break the 4 minute mile barrier

There's a tribe of runners in our town – I live with one actually.

There's much discussion at Starbucks of the right recovery drink, the correct stretch to set the muscle up for a run, many arguments about the best combination of Lycra and wicking fabrics for runs that begin at 6:00AM in 70° heat and conclude at 88°... forget about the humidity.

What strikes me though, about this interesting subculture of daily commitment, is the startling lack of concern with win, place or show. Sure, everyone knows who the "players" are. Shannon, Lucy, Gigi are a pretty good bet to bring home the brass, but they will all be trading places between themselves and the elite runners from other towns who show up to compete. What is so much more powerful about this tribe of achievers is that they are showing up – doing it – day after day – no matter who wins.

They are not so concerned about winning or relative standing, but about being outside putting one foot in front of the other. Their big focus when competing is how near they came to their personal best – or how much they moved the bar. Consider then, it's not merely about showing up, but to be fully present in this moment and to shave some time from last week’s performance.

Hold that thought! Now consider the ordinary business week. Are we focusing on improving our skills as speakers, managers, leaders or communicators? Or are many of us just focusing on crossing items off the to-do list? Take yourself momentarily to the end of your career: will it be enough to say, "I got through a lot of meetings." Or would you rather be thinking, "I was engaged, I had the ball, personally moved the company forward five yards, improved my skills dramatically, and left a lot of people better for my presence in their lives."

Some Personal Best suggestions:

1. For You. It's difficult to improve everything at once. Pick a skill or a previous record and give it a week or two of intense focus. Start by establishing a Personal Best, and then go about improving on it.

2. For the Family. Get the partner, spouse, kids, spouse's kids, parents and in-laws engaged in the process too. Everyone needs to be reminded that life isn’t so much about accumulating years, but about capturing moments as well. Get the kids running, the spouse managing the logistics and the parents playing the cowbells alongside the course. (As First Cowbell Player at our house, I can testify to the impact of a “personal cheerleader” on the performance and happiness of the team. Everyone does better when someone is pulling for them!) Teach and demonstrate the behavior you want your family to manifest!

3. Take the practice to the office as well. Don't keep this a secret; let everyone on your team become involved too. It might start by letting athletics into the office environment. But it might be better still if your team exchanged areas in which they want to improve their business performance. Imagine, instead of working in individual silos, we convert our colleagues into teammates, coaches and cowbell ringers.

It's one thing – and a good one – to show up. That’s 80%. But coming with the intention and preparation required to improve on the personal best – now that’s the other 20% that raises the performance – and perhaps one’s entire life – to a whole new standard. Yes this is partly about athletics, but also about family, professionalism and applying one high standard of expectation to all these life domains – Fusion!